Waxwing training

June 23, 2015 By Scott 3 Comments

caught with both hooks

My fishing buddy Chester had purchased some Waxwings but hadn’t gotten the chance to try them until today. We went to one of the test grounds and as I was demonstrating how I like to retrieve the lure, this white papio hammered it on cue. This was the first time a fish was stuck by both hooks. Because I had smashed down the barbs, I was able to shake the fish loose, unharmed.

Chester had papio bump his Waxwing and landed a white papio. I had 3 papio hit and shake off the hook. Hopefully when the larger papio come into the shallows, they’ll inhale the lure and get hooked well. Still waiting for the oama school to seek shelter inside, bringing the larger predators with them.

Better fishing 1 day after the New Moon

June 17, 2015 By Scott Leave a Comment

Kris fished his oio spot today and I went back to fish the Waxwing test grounds where it was slow yesterday. We both fished shortly after the tide began to rise and both saw a lot of bait fish and target fish. Kris caught two oio and some small papio. I saw oio, and had kaku and small white papio chase the Waxwing, but nothing stayed on the hook.

Take away: When fishing days with large tidal swings, start fishing shortly after the tide begins to rise. If you wait too long like we did yesterday, the fish may be done feeding and you can’t see them through all the murk.

Tough fishing on a new moon day

June 16, 2015 By Scott 6 Comments

one lonely fish for me

The tide was coming up fast today (New Moon) and we had high hopes for the dark moon conditions. The tide had already reached 1 foot by the time Kris and I started fishing and as the water got murkier, and the bait fish grew scarcer, it appeared that we missed the prime period to fish. Kris took turns throwing a Campania grub and a piece of cut bait, and I threw the trusty black/chrome Waxwing. It was very slow going until Kris caught an obake weke on the bait. I was still looking for my first follow when I cast near Kris’ bait and immediately hooked a small white papio. I suspect Kris’ bait had drawn the papio to the area

moi on the Campania

The lull continued until Kris got a hit on the Campania grub and caught a small moi on the next cast. Sadly, that was all we had to show for a few hours of fishing. We talked to a bait fisherman going for oio, and he said that he had fished for most of the day without getting a decent strike. Slow day indeed.

maybe my shirt scared the fish?!

As a consolation prize, Kris took this photo so I could check my casting form. Always good to fish with a professional photog!

All fish were released unharmed.

2015 Tokunaga Ulua Challenge

June 15, 2015 By Scott Leave a Comment

I had the opportunity to hang out with the Lawai’a Magazine guys at the Tokunaga Ulua Challenge in Hilo yesterday. The Tokunaga event is the largest ulua tourney in the state and this year 611 entrants participated, 20 of whom were female.

Tokunaga prizes!

Up for grabs were a very generous amount of custom rods, Shimano reels, quality coolers, Naoki fish prints, fishing line, lures, hooks, etc. And the Jackpot was huge also.

First fish

The weigh-ins started up with a 78lb GT. It held first place for a few hours and the big fish holders sand bagged by getting in line just before the 2pm cutoff.

the Winnah!

Weigh-ins continued for more than an hour after and the winning ulua ended up going 93.9 lbs and was caught on a barbless circle hook. The largest fish in the omilu category went 22.6 lbs.

final placings

Here’s the final placings in both the Ulua and Omilu categories. A nice friendly, family vibe was felt throughout the whole event.

Full moon, high solunar Waxwing whipping

June 2, 2015 By Scott Leave a Comment

low tide, big surf

I fished the high solunar activity period on the Waxwing test grounds I fished last week. The tide was rising fast but the bite was slow. Even though there were schools of aholehole and mullet fingerlings in the muddy shallows, the black/chrome Waxwing just got a few follows and bumps from the small white papio.

omilu like the Waxwing also

I saw 10 inch kaku, and even saw the same oio rooting in the sand 5 feet from shore that I saw last week, but nothing attacked with vigor until I hooked a small omilu. That omilu hit the lure just as it landed in the water, and was hooked on its bottom jaw.

nice oio on a slow day

A regular at the spot, Brian walked out 5 ika baits and fished through the high solunar activity also. He was rewarded with a nice 5 lb oio and called it a day as the tide hit 2 feet.

I’ve joined the solunar activity non-believers. Low visibility conditions, rising tide and small moon seem to cause the fish to bite better than these high solunar activity periods.

Oio seem to consistently bite during these slow periods. Too bad they don’t eat Waxwings on a regular basis.

More Waxwing testing on the high solunar activity

June 1, 2015 By Scott Leave a Comment

See the bite marks near the back of the tail?

While Kris and the boys dunked shrimp on the deeper part of the mud flat, I threw a new black and chrome Waxwing Baby around that I was hoping would look like a baby mullet. The tide was rising and the solunar activity was high, but there were overhead waves on the outer edge of the reef.

The papio bite for the boys was slow but they were able to catch 4 oio between 4lb and 6lbs. They usually catch more oio than that so it was a slow day in general for them.

I had some small papio follow my Waxwing and saw a larger omilu dart out behind a boulder and ambush the lure. It came off while I was fumbling to get my camera phone out. It looked to be around 10 inches. Not too impressive but the largest papio I’ve caught so far. I ended the day with a small white that stayed on for the photo.

Does this mean the solunar activity charts are bogus or did the large swell put the fish off the feed?

The 40 lb fluorocarbon leader I used to ward off kaku cutoffs didn’t seem to scare off the papio.

Poll Results: Do you time your fishing with Solar/Lunar Activity charts?

May 31, 2015 By Scott Leave a Comment

This poll couldn’t have worked out any better. It ran for a month, the same duration as the last poll that ran last year, and there were 95 votes tallied. That’s 3 times the participation as last year’s. The poll prevented voters from voting more in a week’s span, so I’m assuming most of the voters voted only once. Thanks for participating !

It was very close between fishers who checked the tides and didn’t worry too much about solunar activity, and fishers who just fished when they had some free time. In the end, 45% were tide fishers and 40% fished when they could regardless of tide and solunar activity. 10% thought the solunar activity charts were bogus, and 5% strictly fished during high solunar activity.

To decide for myself whether there’s truth to solunar activity, I downloaded an Android app called Fishing Calendar, which displays high and low activity for a month at a time. I’m gonna try to fish the high activity periods to see if I do better than I have been doing.

Stay tuned for those fishing reports and more polls.

Waxwing and attractant test during a solunar activity period

May 26, 2015 By Scott 1 Comment

I fished the early solunar activity period today to see if that would improve my catch rate. The high activity period was between 6:18 am and 8:18 am. I started fishing at about 7:20 am which is really early for me.

bottom Waxwing w/stronger, shorter hook (changed the Green Shad’s hook after the photo was taken)

I had on a Green Shad patterned 1/2 oz Waxwing. I was hoping the Green Shad looked close enough to an off-white oama with a greenish topside. I had replaced the stock hook with a shorter, stronger one since I was having too many fish fall off the stock hook. I slathered some Uni Butter attractant, which is made from uni (sea urchin) and cast it out into the murky water lapping on the beach.

white papio – first cast

Hookup on the first cast! A 5 inch white papio nailed it. Maybe there’s some truth to the solunar activity period thing after all! Or maybe it’s just better to fish the early morning rather than mid day.

hungry white

I worked my way down the beach and found another murky cove. The small whites followed the Waxwing in, bumping the side of the lure. On my next cast I sped up my retrieve and caught another one. Since the only hook is at the tail, it’s recommended to retrieve quickly so the fish miss the front of the lure and grab the tail.

The early morning, with no wind and overcast skies was looking very fishy. As I left the murky, muddy water and fished the shallow reef, I spotted a 4 lb oio tailing a few feet off the beach. I worked the Waxwing past it but the oio moved off. It didn’t spook like it would if any other lure or bait ripped past him, but probably realized I was tied to the lure and swam a little deeper to feed.

1st kaku on waxwing

Nothing wanted to bite in the clearer water so I made my way back to the murky cove. The whites chased the Waxwing onto the sand, and I eventually caught another one. The Green Shad pattern slathered with Uni Butter scent seemed to be working. On the next cast I hooked something a little bigger and it turned out to be a small kaku. Cool, I was hoping the Waxwing would fool the kaku also. So far, the tackle test was working.

On the next retrieve all of a sudden there was no weight on the line. Arrghh! Another kaku must’ve hit the line about the knot. There went $15. I put on a gold kastmaster and worked the same area that I was getting follows and bites… nada. I put on a Rainbow Trout patterned Waxwing and got a few more follows. The solunar activity period had passed and the sun was higher. I decided to quit while only down one Waxwing.

Takeaway: The early morning high solunar activity period was pretty fishy. The Waxwings in a sort of oama pattern, slathered in Uni Butter did attract small white papio and kaku, and the replacement hook held much better than the stock hooks.

weke on cut bait

The last time I fished the Waxwings out near the surf break I didn’t get a single hit, and when I started dragging cut bait I immediately caught small omilus and this weke that imitated a small oio. Maybe the omilus are less easily fooled by lures? In hindsight I wasn’t retrieving as fast as I did today.

Oama fishing basics (2015)

May 22, 2015 By Scott 22 Comments

Oama season traditionally runs from the beginning of July to the end of September. Last year the oama came in early and schools kept coming all the way into November. It’s been theorized by marine biologists that the common weke and red weke broadcast spawned earlier than normal due to last Spring’s warmer than normal sub-surface water temperatures and favorable currents brought the oama into the island chain.

Here’s what you need to know before they arrive.

oama gear

What You Need

Short, straight pole. You could use a bamboo pole but I like the cheap, telescopic fiberglass poles with the eyelet at the tip. 4 to 5 feet is normally long enough. Tie 2 – 4lb test Mono or fluorocarbon line to the eyelet.
Small hooks with the barb pinched down for easy release of oama and net snags. Some fishers start with a number 20 J-shaped hook early in the season when the oama are small. I like to use the larger number 17 hook, or a slightly larger Owner Mosquito hook. Small hooks are harder to tie and harder to unhook.
The larger sized split shot. One larger shot works better than two smaller shot since two shot tend to tangle easier. Pinch the larger shot on about 4 inches above the hook.
Small landing net. Spend a little more on a net with nylon netting. It would snag less than the common red cotton-blend type.
Footwear to walk on pebbly sand and slippery rocks.
Floating live bait bucket. I like the yellow Frabill Flow Troll with the spring-loaded door.
Bait. Opae, frozen shrimp, aku belly and oama flesh. There are a few “secret” baits people use that I won’t reveal. When the oama are biting well, frozen shrimp legs dragged on the bottom work surprisingly well.

Optional:

Hat
Polarized sunglasses
5 gallon bucket and live bait aerator/pump if you’re planning to keep the oama alive

can you see the oama?

Where To Find Oama

There are some fairly well known spots on Oahu to catch Oama. Ala Moana Beach, Wailupe, Heeia Pier, Ka’awa, Punalu’u, Haleiwa, etc. You can drive by and check those spots from the car, looking for oama fishers.
The less visible, less fished spots will have to be checked by foot. Generally oama will congregate in areas sheltered from wave action and at the shore end of a shallow protective reef shelf. The areas will be open with good visibility so the oama can see their predators coming from far away.
Oama also seek protection in mangrove roots but aren’t usually in a feeding mood when they’re hunkered down.

How to Catch Oama

When oama are breezing from spot to spot, they aren’t interested in eating. To get these breezers to start eating, you can palu with a mixture of sand and sardines/bloody fish scraps.
When you see the oama sniffing around on the sandy bottom with their barbels, they’re looking for food. This is the best time to catch them. Drop your bait to the bottom. When the oama swim to it and start nibbling, lift the bait up in a smooth upward toward the approaching oama. If you don’t hook one, drop down and repeat the lifting movement every few seconds as the oama are headed for your bait. Lift early, before the oama has tasted and rejected your bait. This takes practice; watch how the oama pros do it.
When the oama aren’t actively eating but are mildly interested in your bait you can try dragging it sideways on the bottom. This makes the bait look more like the critters they feed on and sometimes gets them to bite.
Oama tend to bite better when the tide is moving. If the oama are really not feeding, wait until evening when they normally binge before looking for a place to sleep.

Handling of Oama

Pinch down the barb of your hook so the oama can be removed quickly. This will cause you to lose quite a few but it’ll be less damaging to the fish.
If possible, tuck your landing net on your body somewhere so you can guide the caught oama into the net rather than holding the net with one hand and the rod with the other. Unhook the oama in the net gently and place it in your floating bait bucket with as little trauma as possible. Once in the bait bucket, the oama will calm down. You can place quite a few in the bait bucket as long as there’s good water flow.
When pau fishing, transfer the oama in the floating bait bucket to your 5 gallon bucket that you filled with cool, clean sea water. A little sand on the bottom of the bucket helps calm the fish down. Turn on your portable aerator and make sure there’s good oxygenation. If that aerator stops, the oama will suffocate in a few minutes.
If you’re not planning to use the oama right away, take an extra bucket or two of water home so you can do a water change. The oama release ammonia which is toxic to them.
Keep the oama container shaded and covered so the oama are less traumatized.

Keeping the Oama Alive at Home

If you plan to use the oama the next day, they can remain in the 5 gallon bucket in a cool, shaded place. Make sure your pump will keep running over night, in fact, it’s worth investing in an electric pump which won’t cost much more than the battery powered ones. You can buy those at a fish supply store.
Change the water daily. Remove any dead or dying fish. To get the most out of your sea water, treat the water with Ammo Lock, which neutralizes the ammonia the fish are releasing. You can buy Ammo Lock in a fish supply store.
If you want to keep your oama longer than a day or two, get a large, black, circular plastic tub from a pet store or garden supply store. The darker background will calm the oama and the circular shape prevents them from running into a corner. Use an electric aerator that puts out a lot of bubbles, and if you really want to keep them happy, add a power head that circulates the water. The electric aerator and power head should be less than $40 together. The plastic tub could run you anywhere from $20 – $100 depending on the size and quality.
To keep the oama from fouling their water too quickly you can add Stress Zyme, which contains live, good bacteria that consumes the gunk produced by the fish. This can be purchased in fish supply stores.
If you want to keep your oama alive a long time you’ll need to add a filter. I use an external canister filter that extracts physical waste and adds water circulation.
It’s not easy raising wild, saltwater fish. After many die-offs I can now keep most oama alive for a few weeks with some living for more than 3 months.

Using the Oama for Bait

Ideally you can fish the live oama with as little terminal tackle as possible, allowing it to swim naturally. Some fishers walk out to reef dropoffs and “free line” their oama with just a hook. Dunkers use a lead line and shorter leader tied to a small papio hook Slow trollers, like me, hook the oama in the head with a second hook dangling near the last fin.
If you’re able to make a soft cast, you can lightly hook the oama behind the dorsal fin to cause the least amount of damage. If you want to hook the oama as securely as possible, you can hook it from under the lower jaw, out through the top of the head, but in front of the brain so you don’t kill it. Since I very slowly troll mine on my longboard or kayak, I hook mine through its nostrils so it can still gulp water.
Lively oama get bit better than sluggish oama, but even dead ones still work.
If your oamas die but are still in pretty good shape, you can freeze them for use later. First lay them out and salt them with Hawaiian Salt or rock salt. Let them sit that way for a few hours, in the fridge. The salt will draw out water from the fish, which minimizes freezer burn. If possible, vacuum seal the oama, then freeze. The oama will look a little dehydrated from the salt but will plump up when you use them in water.

Is it Papio Season Yet?

May 21, 2015 By Scott Leave a Comment

modified board mount sitting on a bucket

Boaters have serviced their boats in anticipation of Ahi Season. My prep for Papio Season was much easier. I cleaned the old wax off my longboard and modified a board mount I got from boardfisher.com to be more wind resistant. The original milk crate setup was very ergonomic but caught a lot of wind when stuffed with gear. I simply cut off the back 1/3 of the crate, letting the wind blow through, and reinforced it.

I took the mount out yesterday, with my last batch of `opae lolo, to see if the papio started prowling the reef. The lolos got hit by small fish but nothing stayed on the hook. I switched to the blue sardine Waxwing Baby with high hopes after the successful field test and addition of a much stronger, sharper double hook. After flailing the water for more than an hour, all I caught was a small cornetfish.

I guess it’s not papio season yet. No influx of bait fish to draw them. Shucks.

A little late to the Waxwing party

May 15, 2015 By Scott 5 Comments

(top to bottom) Salt Pro Minno, Crystal Minnow and Megabait

(top to bottom) Salt Pro Minnow, Crystal Minnow and Megabait

I left the bait at home and went back to the spot with the baby white papios to test my lures again. Since the target fish were small and I’d be casting from the beach, the lures would have to be on the small side and shallow running. I tried a Diawa Salt Pro Minnow, Yozuri Crystal Minnow and a Megabait swimming plug (see photo).

The Salt Pro Minnow cast pretty well but dove a little too deep for the shallow water I was fishing. The Crystal Minnow tumbled in the wind and dove a little too deep also but had a good tight wobble. Both were too large for the target test fish. The Megabait had this spastic wobble that scared everything within 2 miles.

Waxwing and Kastmaster. Note the power handle on the Calcutta TE

Saving the best two for last I tried a 3/8 oz gold Kastmaster with a trailer. The small whites chased it into the murky shore break like they did the last time. I got a few bumps and hooked a couple and switched the Kastmaster out for the Waxwing. The Waxwing comes with a lot of hype and a $15 price tag for the smallest size (1/2 oz). Fishers claim they’ve caught sea birds on it, and supposedly everything with scales and fins chase it.

big hook for small white

I was using a 2.68 inch, 1/2 oz Waxwing Baby in the blue sardine pattern. Its wings did cause it to veer when I cast into a side wind but it still went further than other plugs its size. The zig zag swimming pattern followed by a more pronounced zag every so often brought the small whites in to investigate. They started bumping it and got hooked once in a while. The small schooling mullet played follow the leader with it, and a 7 inch white weke sniffed it with its whiskers as I left on the surface a few feet from me!

the hook missed the eye, fish was released healthy

I didn’t catch any birds on the Waxwing but did hook quite a bit more whites than I did on the Kastmaster. The double hook has been reviewed by others as suspect, and besides not hooking well, quite a few of the larger whites came off the hook when I was bringing them in.

With a better double hook or single siwash hook, the Waxwing will be an awesome plug to throw from my longboard. It swims a foot or two below the surface and really does have a swimming action that causes fish to take notice. The Salt Pro Minnow and Crystal Minnow are worth another try when I’m in deeper water. The Megabait will go back in storage.

Lawai’a Magazine

May 13, 2015 By Scott 2 Comments

Are you guys familiar with the relatively new Lawai’a Magazine? It’s only a few years old but has eye popping photos and great articles covering all the aspects of Hawaii fishing including fish eating. It comes out quarterly, and you can purchase it in tackle stores and poke shops like Tanioka’s for less than $4.

oldie but goodie

In the current issue, you’ll find my first article, titled “Early Days”. Lawai’a, which means fisherman in Hawaiian, gave me a bit of space to chronicle how I started surfboard fishing in the 80’s on a leaky tanker I found under the someone’s house. Check it out and try not to laugh at the picture of me wearing short Quiksilver shorts!

Tackle test in less than ideal conditions

May 7, 2015 By Scott 4 Comments

The wind and surf were up and the solunar activity was down. Not the best time to wade out and fish the reef.

baby omilu under the float

To avoid having to re-tie rigs I tried drifting cut bait on an adjustable float. I didn’t snag anything but found it hard to cast such a light float in the windy conditions. I caught a few small omilu but didn’t like the slack line required to drift the float in the current.

When the waves started hitting me at the neckline I gave up and headed for shore. I switched to a rainbow trout pattern 3/8 oz Kastmaster just to throw something that would go further than a few yards.

The power handle I added to my bait caster did its job and I could retrieve fast enough to burn the lure in. Small papio were chasing the Kastmaster a few feet from the beach so I varied my retrieve and hooked up. Finally, after two outings with no bites on lures, I caught something. The papios turned out to be 6 inch white papio, and they were following the lure in from the deeper, cleaner water and ambushing it in the muddy water near shore. It was great to get back into the rhythm of casting, retrieving in a crank-crank-crank-pause tempo and feeling the occasional hits. The single, siwash hook I had on the kastmaster is sized for larger fish so I missed a lot of the bites. But the baby white papio I caught helped bring some lure casting mojo back.

Here’s how I customize my Kastmaster hooks to reduce snags.

Poll Closed: Do you time your fishing with Solar/Lunar Activity charts?

April 29, 2015 By Scott 4 Comments

It seems like there are far more fishers out when the sun and moon align, causing greater tidal swings, than when the tides and sun/moon phases are not optimal.

I’d like to know how much you adjust your fishing times based on these “solunar” activity predictions.

Thanks for participating!

Note:

(5/22/15) After 3 weeks and a total of 70 votes, it’s still neck and neck between those that check the tides but don’t worry about the solunar activity too much, and those that fish when time allows. The poll will close at the end of May. Get your vote in!

(5/5/15) In less than a week there have been 33 responses to this poll. 14 check the tides but don’t worry about the solunar activity so much, another 14 just fish when they have the time. Just 2, so far, only fish when the activity is high. To see how others have responded, click the “View Results” link on the poll.

Low solunar activity = no fish?

April 29, 2015 By Scott Leave a Comment

Kris and Eddie experienced some decent catch and release fishing when they waded out near the break the other day, so I went with Kris yesterday despite the poor solunar activity level and wind/rain forecast. The weather forecast was accurate. We got rained on and the gusts exceeded 25 mph.

The fishing was much slower than normal. Kris was dunking and missed 3 large strikes that pulled drag. They either cut the leader line or came unbuttoned. I caught a couple small papio and a moana dragging bait and once again, nothing touched my kastmaster or swimming plug.

Maybe those solunar charts are accurate. Do you guys believe in them? I’ll run a poll to see how you guys feel.

challenging conditions

What was the silver lining in the cold, blustery day of few fish? Data to log supporting poor fishing on low solunar activity days. And my waterproof bag stayed dry except for when I had it open and a wave swamped me.

This is the tide/solunar chart site I use.

Lure-only day from the longboard

April 23, 2015 By Scott 3 Comments

Today’s fishing conditions were similar to yesterday’s: south winds, overcast skies, moderate surf, rising tide. I fished the same spot as yesterday to see how well lures would work. Kris waded out and dunked cut bait, and acted like a control for this little comparison.

I used a Shimano Waxwing, Sebile Magic Swimmer Soft and a gold Kastmaster. How do you think I did?

I didn’t get a single bite on the Waxwing and lost it. Ouch, it was a $15 lure. I was using a casting reel that I hadn’t adjusted properly for throwing light lures with a stiff rod. When I was picking out a backlash, the line wrapped around the reef and I couldn’t find my Waxwing in the 5 foot deep swirling water.

After adjusting the reel’s mechanical brakes to slow down the cast, I didn’t get any more backlashes but also didn’t get a single hit on the Magic Swimmer Soft or the gold Kastmaster. I could understand that the swimming plugs didn’t get hit but the gold Kasmaster usually causes reef fish to jump on it. Nope, not today.

The fishing was slow for Kris also but he did get a few strong hits and landed a feisty 3 lb oio.

On this low solunar activity day, cut bait beat lures. Yesterday had less solunar activity than today and almost all the live bait got bitten. The cut bait wasn’t touched yesterday but I only fished it for 10 mins or less.

Live bait > cut bait > lures

Click here to see how I did yesterday.

Trolling big oama and `opae lolo on my longboard

April 22, 2015 By Scott 3 Comments

My out of season oamas had a sudden die off and I was left with just two. They were 7 inches long and skinny so I figured I’d better use them before they expired. I also took a bunch of `opae lolo.

I was halfway out to the break when a SUPer asked if I caught anything. Just as I sat up the drag zipped and that was it. The jumbo oama was gone and the line was cleanly cut. Must’ve been a kaku. I put the last oama on but nothing touched it. I replaced it with an `opae lolo .

The lolos got hit but the fish weren’t large enough to hook themselves on the size 1 Owner baitholder hook. The floater would be pulled down and a mangled lolo would be left. Trolling such a delicate bait didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.

sorry, it was getting dark

I started heading in, trying to figure out a better way to use them when the drag screamed. It was nice to fight a decent sized papio after so many weeks of small papio and drag burning oio. The omilu taped out at 15.5 inches, head to tail, and will make my parents very happy.

For comparison I plan to fish the same conditions with swimming plugs and kastmasters. I’m hoping the papio and kaku put on their predator hats and attack them.

(Click here to see how I did just using lures)

No joy, got a roi, on the reef edge

April 13, 2015 By Scott Leave a Comment

I fished a different part of the reef edge dropping off into a deep channel last week. I started at the bottom of the low tide but the waves were still hitting me above my waist. I was hoping for some big strikes in the channel, instead I caught a barely legal moana and a roi (peacock grouper) dragging my bait over the reef edge.

The roi was only about 10 inches long but it’s mouth was disproportionately huge. Fully open, it looked almost 3 inches in diameter with small, sharp teeth facing inward to prevent swallowed prey from escaping. Very creepy looking, like the mouth of a space alien, not the Tahitian alien species it is. I can see how roi are able to target the juvenile reef fish and swallow them whole.

I wanted to kill the roi but wasn’t equipped to stab it, standing in waist deep water holding a rod. The best I could do was squeeze it below the gills with my long nose pliers. It swam off, mortally wounded, to become food for the fish it preyed on.

The tide rose and I retreated back to shore. Pretty slow day with a few small papio landed on the way in. All the fish were released, only the roi was harmed.

Here’s another post about the evil roi that’s been decimating our native reef fish.

Hunting oio on a narrow reef shelf

April 1, 2015 By Scott 8 Comments

Decided to give the most recent spot a rest. On a friend’s recommendation, I explored a narrow strip of reef that falls into a deeper channel. The terrain was the common crushed rock and tufts of seaweed found on the inner reefs of Oahu.

The bite on the shallow reef during the rising tide was slow so I made my way to the outer edge. I picked up an obake weke halfway out, which I thought was a good sign that oio would be around. Sadly, nothing else bit as I waded deeper and deeper.

I was using a 7ft 11inch casting rod and a heavier 3/4 oz weight. With the help of the wind, I could cast much further than normal. I walked out to hip-high water, and tried to hit a reef section in the channel. I let the bait sit and eventually felt very light taps. It felt like something was pecking away at the bait and I forced myself to wait it out. After about 25 seconds the fish took the bait and pulled line off the reel. Oio! But because of the rocky terrain the fish ran under a rock outcropping and I could feel the line rub. My drag was sticky too, and the line pulled in spurts.

look how well it blends in

The fish dragged all my fluorocarbon top shot through the rock hangup and I was into my braid backing. I turned the fish but it was still hung up on the rock so I waded out to chest high water and was able to free the line. The oio came in easily at this point because it was fighting the increased drag of a stuck line.

I walked it back to shore to take some pics and release it.

my tabis are size 9

Nothing else of consequence bit after that. In the past, catching a 4.5 lb oio measuring almost 22 inches at a new spot would’ve been great accomplishment. But after this week’s 6 pounder, it was kind of anti-climactic. And fighting the 6 pounder with a locked down drag must’ve warped the drag washers. I’ll have to rebuild the drag system before the next screamah hits.

Whipping vs. Dunking on the flats, Rd 3

March 30, 2015 By Scott 5 Comments

I had the pleasure of fishing with Kris and his friends, Nick and Eddie today. They showed me a new spot on the flats, and when the oio and papio started to bite, they graciously called me over. The three of them were dunking with long rods and relatively light spinning reels. I was stubbornly using my bait casting whipping setup.

personal best so far

They could easily out cast me and were getting some strong strikes. They had already caught some oio and good sized papio (omilu, white and barred) while I was struggling to reach the productive area. I finally found a mound to stand on where I could use the wind to get my bait out further. Poaching Eddie’s grounds, I got a solid pickup and screaming run. I was deep into my braid backing before I tightened the drag and stopped the fish. The fish was pulled within 10 yds of me before taking off again. 2 powerful runs later and it was done.

oio on light bait casting gear

Looks like Chester will be getting his oio for taegu after all. The fish was just short of 26 inches (head to tail) and 6 lbs.

Like I did with my previous oio, I had cast and let the bait sit for a while before getting the strike. So I was really dunking with a short rod and a light weight. Dunking with the right equipment was far more productive for the guys today so I will concede defeat. In all 3 outings, the dunking method out fished the whipping method. Click here to see how rounds 1 and 2 went.

The boys humbly declined having their fish photos published.